The college football season begins in Ohio State. The nationally ranked Buckeyes are hosting Louisville.

Ohio State’s quarterback is Kirk Herbstreit. Playing quarterback for the Cardinals is Jeff Brohm and his older brother, Greg, is one of the team’s top receivers.

The Buckeyes hold on to win 20-19 when Louisville decided to go for two after scoring a touchdown with 33 seconds to play. Jeff Brohm was pressured by Dan Wilkinson into an incomplete pass to seal the victory.

Move ahead to Aug. 30.

Herbstreit, the No. 1 college football analyst for ESPN, will be in the television booth when Brohm and the Boilermakers host Northwestern in the season opener at Ross-Ade Stadium.

“He had a good team, Jeff did,” Herbstreit said when asked if he remembered the 1992 game at Ohio Stadium. “He was such a good player but yeah, we were fortunate to escape that day. Dan Wilkinson ended up making a play when they went for two late in the game and got some pressure on Jeff and we were able to escape with a one-point win.”

Thursday will be Herbstreit’s first time in the TV booth for a Purdue game since 2013 when Notre Dame came to West Lafayette for a night matchup in Darrell Hazell’s first season. It’s also the first of four events – including three games – Herbstreit will broadcast over a four-day period.

More from Herbstreit in this Q&A with the Journal & Courier:

Q: What sticks out about the job Jeff Brohm did at Purdue last year?

A: Like a lot of these coaches that go into a new situation, typically you’re coming in because the previous coach couldn’t get it done and there’s a losing culture there. I think sometimes we get caught up in how many wins a new coach has but what I like to see is how he’s changed the mindset of a team and changed the attitude of a team. If you watched Purdue play in 2014, 2015 and 2016 – and I like Darrell Hazell – but something was missing with those teams. What I saw from the team in ’17 was a team that wanted to fight, a team that wanted to compete. I thought they took on the personality of their head coach. I’m looking forward to coming in Week 1 and seeing them play, against what I think is a good team in Northwestern. Both of these teams are headed to the postseason to get to bowl games and there’s a lot at stake in Week 1. I’m looking forward to seeing Year 2 of this Jeff Brohm era.

Q: What are you looking forward to seeing once you get around the program?

A: The job the defense did, and you go back to where they were in the previous years, they’re giving up almost 35, 38 points a game. Last year, that defense was tough and challenging and difficult to deal with. I’m looking forward to getting around Nick Holt and some of these defensive players, especially Markus Bailey, the leader of the team.

ESPN commentator Kirk Herbstreit walks on the field prior to a 2016 game between the Ohio State Buckeyes and the Penn State Nittany Lions at Beaver Stadium.(Photo: Matthew OHaren, Matthew O'Haren-USA TODAY Sports)

The obvious thing, I want to see the quarterbacks. I know they were both in Chicago (for Big Ten Media Day) and I know it’s a delicate situation. They’re both very capable. How is he going to handle, being a quarterback himself, the situation? Nobody understands and appreciates the quarterback situation better than him and how it’s challenging on a quarterback – in my opinion – to be rotated in and out. As much as you respect the other guy, it’s your team and it’s hard to get into a rhythm, it’s hard to do what you need to do as a leader when you’re getting pulled out every third series or whatever it might be or ‘Hey, we’re going to go with the hot hand.’ I want to see how that plays itself out and who ends up getting the upper hand and will he eventually go with one guy. Both of those guys did such a good job last season.

Sometimes you have to be careful of balancing and trying to appease both guys. It’s better for the team to have one guy be the guy and the other guy can come in if there’s an issue. You can count on one hand, maybe, how often in the last five years you’ve seen that work out for teams where they have truly have two guys that rotate in and out.

Q: Could you have handled a two-quarterback deal like that?

A: No. I wouldn’t have liked it. I look at the quarterback as an extension of the coaching staff. He’s essentially a coordinator out there and to be the guy, I want to be the guy. I want to, not only impact the offense, but I want to impact the defense. I think the quarterback can impact the team in the intangible approach and the grit of a team. Sometimes, it’s hard to do that if you’re being taken out every third or fourth series.

Q: The Purdue-Northwestern game is the start of a weekend journey through most of the country. Is the schedule something you just embrace?

A: I’ve done it for so long, it’s all I know. Last year was the first time I did three games in one weekend. The opening weekend with the Ohio State-Indiana game and then the other games. It was the same approach with the Big Ten matchup. GameDay is a lot closer in South Bend. I’ll fly to Orlando and fly over to Tallahassee for Sunday and Monday (Virginia Tech at Florida State).

It sounds like a crazy, wacky few days but we’re doing something we love. This week I’ve prepared and looked at all three games but early next week I’ll be completely locked in on Purdue and Northwestern. Once that game is over, I’ll reach into my folder and do the GameDay stuff. As soon as GameDay is over, you reach into your other folder and lock into your next game with Alabama and Louisville. You can’t do it all at once. I think you have to individually lock in on whatever the next event is.

Q: (Former Notre Dame basketball coach and ESPN colleague) Digger Phelps always said there are no roads from South Bend to West Lafayette. How are you going to get from West Lafayette to South Bend for GameDay?

A: (Laughing). I don’t know. I’m hoping to be able to find them this year.

Q: Now that the Ohio State situation has a resolution, how does that impact what happens in this conference or does it?

A: I don’t know one way or another. I think if they would’ve fired him, I think it would've affected it, but I don’t think with a three-game suspension it impacts things. I picked Penn State before I knew about the suspension and I’m picking Penn State now. I’m not saying, ‘Oh, three-game suspension. Oh, my gosh, this changes things up.’ I’ll be surprised if Ohio State loses any of those three games. For Ohio State, they’re trying to do the best they can without Urban Meyer on the sideline. In my opinion, it doesn’t change my approach and what I expect from Ohio State this year.

Q: What’s the lesson from the situations at Ohio State and Maryland that every school needs to learn?

A: The big thing for me is how much more proactive coaches need to be and how you need to be accountable for everything. That sounds easier than what it actually is, but I made a comment the other night on SportsCenter that if I were a head coach, I would go out and hire a former detective, a former FBI agent – whoever it might be – and their sole job would be to monitor, not outside of our program, but inside our program. The players, the player's girlfriends, the coaches, the coaches wives, the coaches children and be tuned into anything and everything.

When there is a potential issue, you’ve got to be able to address it with the professionals who are trained to deal with these things. In Ohio State’s case, they sat back and waited for charges, waited for arrests. You can’t wait for that. You’ve got to be able to see the signs and be able to react accordingly.

With Maryland, most athletic programs in this day and age where we’ve had some deaths in sports – going back to (Minnesota Vikings offensive lineman) Korey Stringer. His death (in 2001), from what I’ve been told, really changed the game as far as training staffs and how often teams take breaks. When I played, if you drank water during a run, you were looked at as being soft. Now, they’re taking breaks constantly.

I don’t want to say it’s just an isolated case because I know, and I’ve watched these teams run and I know typically these training staffs they’re pretty tuned into a player who is showing signs of trouble. If I were the head coach and my program hasn’t been in trouble yet and I’m watching these other stories, I would be making sure I’m talking to my staff about being proactive and making sure we’re doing what we need to do to not allow something like this to happen in our program.

Q: Can anyone challenge Wisconsin in the Big Ten West?

A: I don’t think so. They are loaded. Not only the line play, (running back) Jonathan Taylor but people forget about (quarterback) Alex Hornibrook. He’s really good. They’re always going to have a great defense. One thing about it, if you look at their schedule the last couple of years it’s been manageable but they’ve got some tough games on the road. When I say nobody can challenge them but if they go on the road and lose some games, like at Penn State and Michigan, all of sudden you go from this team that has a chance to go undefeated to this team that has two or three losses and then it’s a new ballgame.

I think the winner of the game Thursday night, that’s another thing. If Purdue beats Northwestern, how could Jeff Brohm not look at his team and say, ‘Hey guys, we’ve got a chance to do some great things this year.’ Or Pat Fitzgerald wins on the road in West Lafayette. Why not Northwestern with its quarterback Clayton Thorson? There’s a lot at stake, even though it’s Week 1 for both of those teams.

Q: Where does Purdue fit in the West this year and does a lot depend on this first game?

A: I think how they start the season is going to be huge. People forget that Northwestern is basically averaging eight wins over the last I don’t know how many years now that Pat’s been able to do what he’s been doing in Evanston. It’s been a pretty good run for them.

On paper, you can make an argument that Northwestern and Iowa are those next teams to give a challenge to Wisconsin and after that, to me, it’s a free-for-all. It’s an open battle. You’ve got Scott Frost and Nebraska and he’s trying to do what Jeff Brohm did as far as changing their attitude and their culture. P.J. Fleck and Minnesota, I expect to see them improve drastically in his second year.

I know the West, people look down at because of the strength of the East but I think we’re starting to see signs with these new hires, not only at Purdue and Minnesota and now at Nebraska, that the West is headed in the right direction and I think it’s going to be a much tougher division in the coming years. Wisconsin, Iowa and Northwestern on paper, that’s how most people would view it and that’s why I think it’s a big opportunity for Purdue to get Northwestern at home to start the season.